By Emily Boon
Narrowly avoiding a grubby pigeon or spotting a fox rifling through your bins shouldn’t the only times you come into contact with animals this year. After spending the past year inside and summer creeping ever closer, there’s no better time to get out and explore your local area.
City farms might not be the first thing that springs to mind when planning post-lockdown activities, however there’s no better time to visit. With spring coming to an end there’s plenty of cute new-born animals to ease your stress and lift your spirits. City farms are a unique day out that will be sure to put a spring in your step.
Founded in 1979, Stepney City Farm is a three-acre working farm in the heart of East London. It is an educational charity that aims to improve the life of its nearby local residents through teaching about sustainable farming and providing them with organic, locally sourced food. It provides children and adults the opportunity to experience a rural escape away from the fast-paced city life.
Open from 10am – 4pm Tuesday till Sunday, Stepney City Farm has many amenities to take advantage of this summer. Not only are there cute animals to feed, there is also a café, plant shop and farmers market on Saturdays. If that’s not enough for you and you’d like to get more involved, they also provide pottery, art, beekeeping and woodwork classes.
Visiting the farm is a mutually beneficial experience. By feeding the animals or getting your hands dirty in the allotments you give to the farm, but in doing so you become educated and enriched in nature. Therefore in turn, the farm nourishes you.
As it is a working farm, it provides the on-site eatery, the Allotment Café, with fresh, seasonal produce. This includes everything from fruit to honey to meat.
The Allotment Café is a homely, rustic farm café that serves all organic, local, freshly sourced food from either Stepney City Farm or surrounding local businesses. The menu changes weekly as the food is seasonal from the farm and depends on the success of the crops.
Café director Lucy Cuthbert, says: “People like to know the origin of where their food has come from, that actually this morning the salad was still growing and now they’re eating it in their chicken brioche. That kind of thing is quite cool, we want it to be the best.”
The café has recently been recognised for its success and was featured in a Guardian article about thriving businesses set up during the pandemic.
However, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. “It’s certainly been a rollercoaster of a time,” says Lucy.
Research conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses found that by the end of April 2020, 41% of small firms had temporarily closed. Of those that managed to survive, 24% reported their turnover had decreased by more than 50%.
The hardest thing for Lucy about this past year has been the changing government restrictions, where “one day you can be open and serving outside, the next day it’s takeaway from a hatch at the doorway”.
On the flip side, a positive has been surviving their first year as a fledgling business and helping out the local community. “We’ve gained a real loyal customer fanbase even though it’s been lockdown and we couldn’t have done it without them … it’s certainly not without its challenges, but it’s been worth every moment so far,” says Lucy.
Her proudest moment throughout this whole ordeal has been “when you look out and there’s lots of happy people eating our delicious food and drink with a team of staff running an operation you created”.
In harmony with the café, every Saturday from 10am – 3pm the main farmyard is host to an extremely popular farmers’ market that showcases a variety of local businesses. The market attracts a large (now socially distanced) crowd that flocks to it not only purchase high quality food, but for the farm experience.
Local resident, Emma Cavendish, 21, says she enjoys visiting the farm as “you get the whole farm experience… there’s a lot you can actually see that is unexpected in London, you don’t get that that often”.
The Stepney City Farm website explains in more detail how the stalls vary from week to week, offering a range of produce, including: vegetables, fruit, bread, cheeses, meat, fish, cakes, eggs, olives, preserves, oils, and juices. Regular vendors include Marsh Farm, Whitegates Farm, and Brockmans Farm. If you would like to know more information about the produce, the vendors there are passionate and are more than happy to educate.
Not only can you get food at the farmers’ market, but artists there also sell pottery, textiles, and wood carvings, hand-made on the farm. These services are positively affecting the local residents.
“Me and my friends went to the farmers’ market and we left really inspired from the range of classes available there … we love it and we’re definitely going to be spending a lot of time there in the summer,” says Emma.
In a recent poll, 67% of those asked showed they are interested in visiting the farm over the summer period.
If you would like to get involved more than by just making a flying visit, the farm also has a series of educational programmes that include egg hatching, potato growing, permaculture and beekeeping. Furthermore, it hosts a young volunteers programme inclusive for SEND children, to develop the farm’s role in aiding social justice.
The farm provides the perfect feel of the countryside, inclusive to everyone from all walks of life, without having to even leave the city. Moving forwards post-lockdown, Lucy Cuthbert explains that the Allotment Café “has just reintroduced their Friday evening meals and are looking at potentially introducing another evening of the week”.
The future looks bright for the farm, so why not head east and explore what they have to offer this summer!
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